Introduction

The curse and the gift of being a creator is that you probably have a lot of ideas. That is a gift, because you can always create a new offer, adjust an existing lead magnet to better align with client needs, and write those stories that will engage your reader.

Sounds great, right?

It is, right up until it isn’t.

The swirl of ideas also means that you may find it difficult to focus on just one task, one offer, or one idea. The other ideas are crowding in and tempting you to shift gears to something else.

What happens as a result is that your tasks remain unfinished and your course remains un-launched.

You can keep up this half-finished way of building your business, or you can implement 3 tips for staying focused in spite of the never-ending swirl of ideas.

Which path will you choose?

Endless Ideas

Ideas in your business can feel a bit like feast or famine. It can feel like writer’s block or it can feel like Niagara Falls.

Having loads of ideas might feel like the ideal, right? You can always generate something new, build a revenue stream, or create a marketing plan. But if having a constant flow of ideas were all positive, then we wouldn’t see the flip side of that coin. Lots of ideas can lead to lack of focus and a struggle to get even simple tasks done.

Let me give you a simple example. I love to do house projects. I once installed a new countertop in our half bath while my husband was on a business trip. I installed a whole new closet system another time, swapped out faucets, door knobs, and hinges, and painted rooms. These are all different tasks, but have one thing in common. Without fail, I leave one piece of the project unfinished because I get a new idea that I need to pursue.

So while, a single door hinge that hasn’t been replaced in an entire house might not seem like a big deal, when you combine it with the backsplash in the bathroom that took me months to get back around to, or the trim in the room that didn’t get painted for a year, it starts to become problematic.

And yes, my family still loves me. We are at a point where we just laugh and I go finish the project.

But in each of these cases, nothing would really happen if I didn’t finish the project in a timely manner. That trim in the bedroom was just fine without the refresh.

In our business, however, those unfinished tasks looks like a half finished course that never gets launched, an email sequence that has 3 or the 5 emails written leaving subscribers hanging, or a social media account that is a bit like a rollercoaster with consistency.

When we get distracted by all of our ideas in our business, it can lead to lost revenue and slow or no growth in our bottom line. These aren’t the same as an unfinished trim refresh or the single hinge that hasn’t been replaced yet.

This can make or break our business.

Having too many ideas seems great on the surface, but even on the surface we can quickly see the cracks that it generates in the stability and longevity of our business.

So what is the solution to harnessing these ideas without just putting them in a box with a lock?

Let’s talk through 3 tips for making the most of your ideas while still making efficient progress in your business.

Tip 1: Get Human Accountability

One of the best things you can do for your business and for your own mindset is to get some human accountability.

You might be thinking that human accountability is overrated because you have your journal or planner, or maybe you have everything that needs to get done outlined in Notion, or Trello. If all we needed were planners, a trello board, and a task list then we would all get everything done each day.

The truth is that we need human accountability to stay focused. The most successful entrepreneurs are the ones who routinely make use of human accountability.

This is one of the reasons that my clients check in with me throughout the week as they work on tasks. Not necessarily because they need something from me right now, but because they know I’m watching to see when they get stuck and cheering them on when they hit their goals for the week. When we know that someone else is going to show up and want to know what we’ve accomplished, we tend to show up and get things done.

For over two years, I’ve been co-working at 6am with a group of ladies across the world. We are a small group and for some of them it is an 11am work session, others it is 12pm, but for several of us it is 6am. Recently I had to miss almost a month of co-working sessions as did another person in our group. We both lamented how much less we got done when we didn’t have the human accountability those calls provide. It isn’t just about what happens during the call, but even showing up to the call because we know others are going to show up as well.

We need human accountability to get things done. I’ve seen this in low ticket groups and high ticket groups where members are paying over $1000 a month to participate. We need to be able to hold ourselves accountable with human support.

Tip 2: Follow a Pathway

Corralling the endless ideas that pop up as a creator to still make progress and follow through on your most important project is key to longevity as a digital course creator, but that is easier said than done some days.

Having human accountability is a great first step to that success, but we need a pathway to stay on track with our business.

When I think about this concept, the Yellow Brick Road from The Wizard of Oz comes to mind. Follow the yellow brick road was the instruction that Dorothy was given to get to the wizard and each step along the way, she has to stay on the path.

The key was that she had a path to follow. She had the yellow brick road. Sure, we can all think of someone who just seemingly threw together some actions and created a successful business, but by and far the majority of people need to follow a path to get from point A to point B, even if they do customize it along the way.

The beauty of following a path is that it doesn’t make your business cookie cutter. Instead, it gets you to the place of your business where you can start testing recipes, adding ingredients, and experimenting more quickly.

This is one of the reasons that when I’m working with groups of course creators there is a pathway that we follow. We work on a business vision before anything else because that tells them where their yellow brick road is, and then we get to dig into course creation, messaging, lead generation, and even pre-selling a course.

The pathway is designed to help us ignore the distractions and know what our next step should be.

Tip 3: Be Critical

Finally, in addition to having human accountability and a pathway to follow, we have to learn to be critical about how we spend our time.

When I was sitting down to think about this episode, I had just gotten a garden wind spinner as a present at the same time my husband was headed out of town and my kiddo was headed off to camp for nearly 13 hour days. This meant that my time was all mine for the week. And I had far more business tasks outlined than I would possibly have time for.

But that wind spinner was gorgeous and needed to be put together. My husband, knowing me, and my love of projects while he is gone, looked at me and with love said don’t get distracted. We can put it together when I get home. Stay focused.

Now you might think that was unkind, especially considering it was a gift for me, but in reality it was his gentle nudge after being married for 21 years and knowing my habits to remind me that I had already mapped out what I wanted to accomplish for the week and the wind spinner didn’t fit in those specific days.

We have to learn to be critical of our time, our priorities so that we can accomplish what we set out to accomplish.

But what about all of those ideas that get pushed aside, like my garden wind spinner for the week? Stick around to the end of today’s episode and I’ll share my hack for handling all of the ideas that pop into my brain without forgetting anything, and that’s saying something!

Action Item

My question for you today is what action do you want to take in your business and how are you going to make use of human accountability, a pathway, and being critical to get that thing or things done?

We have to make a plan for our time so that all of the ideas don’t just run amuck and take over like bamboo has the tendency to do.

Become a Six Figure Course Creator

However you choose to manage your ideas into a semblance of order so that you can get the most important tasks in your business done and checked off, you still have to manage your mindset if you want to become a Six Figure Course Creator because there will be times when those ideas look like they are a money tree with literal bills hanging off of it, when in fact they might just be distractions.

Mindset is, quite honestly, one of those things that means the difference between a successful entrepreneur and one who never makes it to profitability. I’ve seen it time again throughout my 15 years as a college psychology professor, course creator, mentor, and entrepreneur.

While learning and mastering the strategies of business, like making sure that we follow a pathway, are critically important, they really only make up about 10% of our success as an entrepreneur. The other 90% often comes down to mindset work through tailored support.

If you are listening today and realizing that you are ready to take the next steps in your business and get customized, tailored help with building your digital course creation business so that you take that idea and are ready to record your course sooner rather than later, let’s have a talk. Send me a DM at DigitalCourseCreatorGuide on Instagram or Facebook that says, “Finished”, and we will sit down to figure out the next right steps for you and your digital course business.

Now I know that not everyone is ready for a Coach or mentor, but you might still have questions, need help getting unstuck, or just plotting out your next step. I’m here for that as well, because we all deserve to have support in our business. If you need a little extra support, I hold at least two slots each week for strategy calls that are designed to help you get unstuck and take action in your business. These are free, no obligation calls and you can schedule your call at coursecalls.com.

If you are ready to make the next 12 months THE year that you go from being an uncertain Course Creator to a Six Figure Course Creator, schedule a strategy call today. Again, the link to schedule is coursecalls.com.

Sixty-Second Solution

I can’t let you go today without addressing the elephant in the room. What happens, as an entrepreneur, when you have a lot of ideas, but not nearly enough time to pursue them all. You know they are good ideas, but they can’t take priority right now.

The key is to create a way to document them so that when you have an “idea day” scheduled into your plans, or find yourself at the end of the to-do list and you are on a roll and want to keep going you know what to do.

I could never keep all of the ideas in my brain and still remember the day of the week so I keep a specific notebook where I jot down ideas. It fits in my purse so that even when I’m out, I always have it with me. If you’d prefer a searchable list, try the notes app on your phone or a Google doc or spreadsheet. This creates a parking lot of sorts for your ideas and frees up your mental space to focus on the tasks at hand.

Where to Go Next?

If you are struggling with choosing what to focus on, check out episode 182 on creating a quarterly plan. This will give you the gentle push you need to get things aligned and choose the tasks that will have the most impact on your goals.

Until next time, happy creating!